Photograph of the Four Presidents (Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon) toasting in the Blue Room prior to leaving for Egypt and Sadat's Funeral, 10/08/1981 (National Archives)

Summary of the United States President's duties

The head of state of the United States is called the President, who also serves the functions of chief executive and commander in chief of the armed forces. By current law, the U.S. president serves a four-year term and may only be re-elected once, as a result of the twenty-second amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In slang, the President of the United States is sometimes called POTUS. The wife of the President is known as the First Lady.

Relative to many of the heads of head from around the world, who often hold largely ceremonial powers, United States Presidents are capable of a large degree of meaningful political action. They can veto any legislation passed by the two houses of Congress. (Overriding a President's veto requries a full two-thirds majority in each house of Congress.) They appoint the heads of the various government agencies. Although the Congress must approve the government's annual budget, it is prepared for them by the President. Though constrained by various other laws passed by Congress, the President's executive branch conducts most foreign policy, and his power to order and direct troops as commander-in-chief is quite significant. (The exact limits of what a President can do with the military without Congressional authorization are open to debate.)

There is a well-defined sequence of who should fill the Presidential office, upon the death, resignation, or removal from office (by impeachment) of a current President:

the Vice President of the United States of America

the Speaker of the House of Representatives

the President pro tempore of the United States Senate.

(Note: The complete list is longer.)

Thus, the Vice President will succeed the President. If the Vice President can no longer service as President, the Speaker of the House becomes and President. And so on.

Photograph of servicemen removing the flag from the casket of President John F. Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery, as the late President's widow and other mourners look on., 11/25/1963 (National Archives)

There were seven Presidents of the Continental Congress prior to the ratification of the Articles of Confederation. These men held very few powers that are now associated with the US presidency and cannot be considered to have been heads of state. Their primary duty was to preside over the Congress (hence the original meaning of "president"):

Peyton Randolph (September 5 to October 21, 1774, and again from May 10 to May 23, 1775)

Henry Middleton (October 22, 1774 to May 10, 1775)

John Hancock (May 24, 1775 to October 30, 1777)

Henry Laurens (November 1, 1777 to December 9, 1778)

John Jay (December 10, 1778 to September 27, 1779)

Samuel Huntington (September 28, 1779 to July 9, 1781)

Thomas McKean (July 10, 1781 to November 4, 1782)

Presidents of the United States in Congress Assembled

There were eight Presidents under the Articles of Confederation. These men held few powers that are now associated with the US presidency and cannot be considered to have been heads of state or the "Chief Executive". These men were simply heads of government with Congress holding all executive powers:

David Rice Atchison (August 11, 1807-1886) was a mid-19th century Senator from Missouri who is thought by some to have been President of the United States for one day: Sunday, March 4, 1849, between the expiration of James Polk's term at noon on Sunday and the official oath of office taken by Zachary Taylor on Monday. The law at that time specified that the President was to be sworn in on March 4th, but President-elect Taylor refused to be sworn in on the Sabbath (Sunday). Atchison had been elected President Pro Tempore of the Senate a couple of days previously and would therefore technically be third in line of succession behind the President and Vice President. Since neither office was held by a person on that day, he is considered by some the President of the United States for that period. However none of the legal requirements for replacing the President with the President pro tempore were fulfilled and on Mar. 4, Atchison was not even technically president pro tempore since the 31st Congress had not yet started.

When asked what he did on this day, he commented "I went to bed. There had been two or three busy nights finishing up the work of the Senate, and I slept most of that Sunday."

Born in Frogtown (now named Kirklevington), Fayette County, Kentucky, Atchison was appointed to the United States Senate to replace a Missouri Senator that had just died. He held this office from 1843 to 1855. He became the first senator from western Missouri and at age 36 the youngest Missourian at that time to enter the U. S. Senate. He also was U. S. Vice President from April 18, 1853, until December 4, 1854, by right of succession upon the death of President Franklin Pierce's vice president, William R. King. He is buried in his home of Plattsburg, Missouri, where a statue honors him in front of the Clinton County Courthouse.

Emperor Norton I (1859-1880) - (February 14 1819 - January 8 1880) was a famous, impoverished and highly eccentric citizen of San Francisco, California in the mid-to-late 19th century. Among his many celebrated and curious activities, he most famously anointed himself as "Emperor of the United States" in 1859. Other notable activities include his dissolution of the United States Congress, and his numerous (and prophetic) decrees that a bridge be built across the San Francisco Bay. The King in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn is reportedly modeled after him. Sadly, his decrees were not properly observed by the rebellious politicians in Washington. Serious measures were obviously called for, and in another imperial decree of January 1860, Emperor Norton I summoned the army to remove them.

Much to the disappointment of the Emperor, the army failed in its appointed task, and the former Congress persisted in their disobedience to his decrees. This necessitated further decrees in 1860 that dissolved the republic and forbade the assembly of any members of the former Congress. This battle against the former leaders of his empire was to persist throughout his reign, and it appears that the Emperor eventually, if somewhat grudgingly, granted consent for the Congress to continue operating.

The benevolent and largely harmless reign of Emperor Norton I came to an end, sadly, on the evening of January 8, 1880, when he collapsed on a street while on his way to a lecture at the Academy of Sciences.
The funeral for the Emperor was a solemn, mournful and large affair, some accounts report that as many as 30 000 peoples lined the streets to pay homage and that the funeral cortege was two miles long. He was buried at the Masonic Cemetery, at the expense of the City of San Francisco.

In 1934, the remains of Emperor Norton I were transferred, again at the expense of the City of San Francisco, to a gravesite of moderate splendour at Woodlawn Cemetery. His present gravestone refers to him as "Norton I, Emperor of the United States, Protector of Mexico". In January 1980, numerous ceremonies and memorials were conducted in San Francisco to honour the 100th anniversary of the passing of the only Emperor of the United States.

There is also a rock band called The Presidents of the United States of America; however, no person has both held the office of President of the U.S. and played in that band.

To learn more about the US PresidentsUse these online
Internet resources

Presidents of the United States - Background information, election results, cabinet members, notable events, and some points of interest on each of the presidents. Links to biographies, historical documents, audio and video files, and other presidential sites are also included to enrich this site.

Character in Time: The U.S. Presidents - Project seeks to produce quality one-act plays that capture the character of each President. Site includes synopsis of each play, along with profiles of the playwrights involved in the project.

U.S. Presidents Lists - Sorts presidents according to a wide variety of criteria ranging from religion to military rank to number of children.

Portraits of the Presidents - Online exhibit from the National Portrait Gallery featuring likenesses of former presidents as well as a brief summary of major events occuring during their administration and information about the works of art.

The American President - Official site for the PBS series includes presidential biographies, historical documents, essays, an overview of the election process, a campaign simulation game, and related lesson plans.

Pets in the White House - Introduces pets that have joined their masters in America's highest office in recent years.

The American Presidency - An informal reference guide including bibliographies, biographies, quotes, trivia and sundry other source materials from the world wide web.

The Presidents of the United States - Short history of the U.S. Presidency, along with biographical sketches and portraits of all the presidents to date. From the official White House site.

Trivia One - Interesting and unusual facts about United States Presidents, in the form of a trivia quiz.

Dead Presidents - Visits to the gravesites of the U.S. Presidents, with links for more information on their lives.

History of Camp David - A look at the history of Camp David, the mountain retreat of U.S. presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt through George W. Bush.

HistoryChannel.com: Impeachment - Explains how crimes and misdemeanors in the White House are dealt with. Includes detailed information on Watergate and the Starr report.

U.S. Presidents and the Presidency - Tells about the office of president, the history of the presidency, and the office of vice president. Includes portraits of first ladies and interactive quizzes. From the publishers of World Book Encyclopedia.